episcopatehttp://www.livingchurch.org/taxonomy/term/726/all
enKenyans, Bishops, and Womenhttp://www.livingchurch.org/bishops-kenyans-and-women
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong><span style="font-variant: small-caps">Commentary</span></strong></p>
<p>By Francis Omondi</p>
<p>The appointment and now the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Libby Lane as Bishop Suffragan of Stockport, prompted many conversations in the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK). Our ties with the Church of England have progressively loosened since March 1955, when Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher consecrated two Africans, one of them Festo Habakkuk Olang, who became the first archbishop of the Anglican Province of Kenya in 1970.</p>
<p>Many Kenyan Anglicans still regard the C of E as their mother church, and they watch events in faraway England carefully. Some now wonder how long it will be before Kenya has a woman among its bishops.</p>
<p>Not every Anglican in Kenya wants this change, and it is an irritation to conservatives. In October 2014 the ACK’s House of Bishops declared a five-year moratorium on the possibility, but this has not silenced voices calling for change.</p>
<p>Some think that adding women to the episcopate is premature and requires more consideration. Most evangelical-leaning bishops oppose it altogether. Others think the matter should have been settled in 1990 when the Kenyan church approved ordaining women to the priesthood.</p>
<p>There are legal and constitutional issues to consider. Article VI, clauses 4 and 5 of the ACK Constitution make a clear demarcation between the work of a bishop and that of a priest. Clause 4 refers to bishops exclusively as male, while clause 5 recognizes that priests can be male or female.</p>
<p>In October a meeting of diocesan chancellors concluded that these incongruencies had no weight and did not prohibit women as bishops. The chancellors further observed that the national constitution of Kenya made illegal any form of sex-based discrimination in appointments to any leadership position. The chancellors concluded the church would lose if a woman appealed to a civil court after being barred from the episcopate.</p>
<p>The Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop of Kenya, asked bishops to approve amendments to the constitution that would dispel any doubts about women being eligible for election to the episcopate.</p>
<p>In December 2013 the Diocese of Eldoret overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow women in the episcopate. No one epitomises the mood of support more than the Rev. Elijah Yego, an influential priest, who changed his mind on the issue after deciding that many women exercise “superior ministry.”</p>
<p>In August 2014 another synod, in the Diocese of Maseno West, unanimously approved the ordination of women as bishops. The Rt. Rev. Joseph Wasonga, Bishop of Maseno West, said the Kenyan church understood the episcopate as a functional office: “Ministry belongs to all who are baptised, be they men or women, and as such no one can deny the other an opportunity to serve in whatever capacity.”</p>
<p>Perhaps more significantly, Kenya came close to having a woman bishop ahead of the Church of England. The Rev. Canon Rosemary Mbogo, provincial secretary of the ACK and chairwoman of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, was on the slate in the Diocese of Embu.</p>
<p>Proponents of women in the episcopate point out that the 1978 Lambeth Conference said member churches may ordain women as they chose. It was on this basis that the ACK agreed in 1980 to permit ordaining women as priests. Three years later the Rev. Lucia Okuthe became the first woman in the priesthood of the ACK. The Church of England began ordaining women as priests in 1994.</p>
<p>Dioceses may, in theory, act autonomously and elect women as bishops. It could be argued the moratorium has a limited constitutional warrant. The real challenge lies with the fact that the more evangelical wing of the ACK is looking over its shoulder, concerned about working relationships outside Kenya.</p>
<p>American voices are influential too. The Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood of the Anglican Church of North America recently warned against taking action “that would be in opposition to Nigeria’s position … that a decision to include women as bishops at this time would also be damaging to the Anglican Church in North America.”</p>
<p>What is at stake is clear. The Rev. Ephraim Radner, professor of historical theology at Wycliffe College, has observed: “Within North America, churches like the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) that have separated from the Episcopal and Canadian churches are moving in a direction that may well prohibit women’s ordination altogether.</p>
<p> “The already-existing divide between these groups and Canterbury is likely to widen,” he added. “[O]rdained women in ACNA and in other evangelical churches may well decide that their own vocations are better pursued back within Church of England-related Anglican churches, and one may see a strengthening of conservative female leadership there.”</p>
<p><em>The Rev. Canon Francis Omondi serves at All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi.</em></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/commentary" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">commentary</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anglican-church-kenya" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anglican Church of Kenya</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/canons" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">canons</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Mon, 26 Jan 2015 18:09:09 +0000Web Editor1920 at http://www.livingchurch.orgThe Next Bishop of Stockporthttp://www.livingchurch.org/next-bishop-stockport
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>Adapted from the Church of England’s website</em></p>
<p>Downing Street today announced that the new Bishop of Stockport — and the first woman bishop in the Church of England — will be the Rev. Libby Lane, currently vicar of St. Peter’s, Hale, and St. Elizabeth’s, Ashley.</p>
<p>As Bishop of Stockport she will serve as a suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Diocese of Chester. She will be consecrated as the eighth Bishop of Stockport at a ceremony at York Minster on January 26.</p>
<p>Libby Lane was ordained as a priest in 1994 and has served a number of parish and chaplaincy roles in the North of England in the Dioceses of Blackburn, York, and Chester. For the past eight years she has served of St. Peter’s Hale and St. Elizabeth’s Ashley.</p>
<p>She is one of eight clergywomen from the Church of England elected as participant observers in the House of Bishops, as the representative from the dioceses of the North West.</p>
<p>Speaking at Stockport Town Hall, she said:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">I am grateful for, though somewhat daunted by, the confidence placed in me by the Diocese of Chester. This is unexpected and very exciting. On this historic day as the Church of England announces the first woman nominated to be bishop, I am very conscious of all those who have gone before me, women and men, who for decades have looked forward to this moment. But most of all I am thankful to God.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">The church faces wonderful opportunities to proclaim afresh, in this generation, the Good News of Jesus and to build his kingdom. The Church of England is called to serve all the people of this country, and being present in every community, we communicate our faith best when our lives build up the lives of others, especially the most vulnerable. I am excited by the possibilities and challenges ahead.</p>
<p>… The Most Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">I am absolutely delighted that Libby has been appointed to succeed Bishop Robert Atwell as Bishop of Stockport. Her Christ-centred life, calmness, and clear determination to serve the church and the community make her a wonderful choice.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">She will be bishop in a diocese that has been outstanding in its development of people, and she will make a major contribution. She and her family will be in my prayers during the initial excitement, and the pressures of moving.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2014/12/the-revd-libby-lane-announced-as-bishop-of-stockport.aspx">Read the rest</a>.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/church-england" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Church of England</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women-episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women in the episcopate</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rev-libby-lane" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the Rev. Libby Lane</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/diocese-chester" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Diocese of Chester</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Wed, 17 Dec 2014 12:53:37 +0000Web Editor1850 at http://www.livingchurch.orgWomen and Provisional Bishopshttp://www.livingchurch.org/women-and-provisional-bishops
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>By G. Jeffrey MacDonald<br />TLC Correspondent</p>
<p>The Episcopal Church needs many more women bishops, according to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and it has neglected available methods to accomplish that goal.</p>
<p>Bishop Jefferts Schori delivered that message October 3 at the <a href="http://www.eds.edu/dewey-heyward">Women’s Leadership Forum</a> at Episcopal Divinity School, where about 80 people (11 of them men) gathered to mark the 40th anniversary of the Philadelphia 11’s ordinations.</p>
<p>Dioceses might place more women in top bishop roles, she said, if they would alter their processes within existing canons to give women a better chance. The presiding bishop mentioned options at the disposal of dioceses, namely electing more than one bishop at a time, and appointing provisional bishops in consultation with her office.</p>
<p>“It’s a way to encourage change and greater openness when a diocese is in need of it,” Jefferts Schori said of provisional appointments, noting they are not subject to the usual balloting process for electing bishops. “Any diocese could call for a provisional bishop if they’re in transition.”</p>
<p>Of 13 provisional bishops serving the Episcopal Church in recent years, only one is a woman: the Rt. Rev. Bavi Edna Rivera of the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. Of those 13, all but two (Rivera and the Rt. Rev. Chester Talton) are white.</p>
<p>Before a luncheon honoring the Philadelphia 11 (five were present), Jefferts Schori spoke on a panel alongside school reform activist Wendy Puriefoy and Victoria Budson, executive director of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s <a href="http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/wappp/home">Women and Public Policy Program</a>. They discussed how women might overcome barriers, including lack of interest.</p>
<p>Rather than cheer how far women have come since the early 1970s, the forum focused on how far they have to go in claiming power positions, and what can be done about it.</p>
<p>Participants lamented a litany of statistics. Despite decades of increasing opportunities for women in professional spheres, they still hold just 20 percent of seats in the United States Senate, 18 percent in the House of Representatives, and 17 percent on U.S. corporate boards. Panelists agreed that the church should be a model of balanced leadership.</p>
<p>“I think of the church as a place where a prism is constructed where people can see what should be, what could be, what is fair, what is right, and what is just,” Puriefoy said.</p>
<p>But the Episcopal Church is not providing enough of a model, they said, and growing numbers of male bishops see the dearth of women in their ranks as a problem that needs to be addressed.</p>
<p>Among the observations at the forum: only two women have been elected as diocesan bishops in the past 14 years; that number has dropped from a peak of five to three now; and large, wealthy parishes are still reluctant to call women as rectors. Women are still elected to supporting roles, such as suffragan bishops and assistant rectors, but seldom receive top roles or top-level pay.</p>
<p>“We aren’t where we expected to be,” said the Rev. Winnie Varghese, rector of <a href="http://stmarksbowery.org/welcome/">St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery</a> in Manhattan and the forum’s moderator. “Not that we are so naïve that we think progress just rolls forward, but it is actually in some cases rolling backward.”</p>
<p>The church has theological reasons for needing more women in top ranks, according to forum participants. One is to reflect Creation as God intended it to be: “God created humankind; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27, NRSV). Another is to be structured for divine justice.</p>
<p>“Women are more than half the human race,” Jefferts Schori said. “Their exclusion from leadership has often meant that their concerns are ignored, including concerns of their children and others who don’t have access to public fora.”</p>
<p>Budson grounded the case for 51-percent female leadership in political philosophy. If everyone in a community is an equal member, she said, then election results should reflect the community’s demographic balance. Otherwise, she said, “you would have to be acknowledging that you do not believe everyone is equal in your community.”</p>
<p>She challenged, however, the commonly held notion that women should hold more leadership positions because they bring a more collaborative style than men. Collaboration is a mark of women’s leadership because they’ve been marginalized, she said, and marginalized groups tend to work collaboratively when they attain power, at least at first.</p>
<p>“When we reach a norm where many or most organizations have longstanding histories of female leadership, it’s very possible that we’ll see the collaborative benefit of female leadership begin to decline,” Budson said.</p>
<p>Feminizing the highest echelons of church leadership, meanwhile, might require some new twists on old processes. Electing one person at a time tends to perpetuate the status quo in any organization, Budson said. People are more likely to shift habits and elect women when several slots are considered or filled at once — or, as she put it, “in batches.”</p>
<p>When asked whether the Episcopal Church could elect bishops “in batches,” Jefferts Schori said such a process would largely depend on the unlikely collaboration among famously independent dioceses, but it could be done. The “bishops in batches” approach has worked at least once to advance the cause of gender balance in the House of Bishops. In 2009, the Diocese of Los Angeles arranged for two bishops suffragan to be elected at the same time.</p>
<p>“Arguably, it gave people permission to vote for a woman or perhaps a gay person, and they did both,” Varghese said. “That was done very intentionally. It was written about in the church, though, as being very manipulative, which was interesting. But there they are. They exist once they’re made.”</p>
<p>Jefferts Schori said that resistance to women in top leadership roles tends to come not from clergy, who are largely supportive. It comes instead from laity in an Episcopal Church she described as “too white, too old, too female” in comparison with the general population. When asked if laywomen are to blame for the scant number of female leaders, she said, “I don’t know that,” and instead placed the problem broadly at the feet of laypeople empowered to cast votes.</p>
<p>“Lay electors are not familiar or comfortable with women as potential leaders in those contexts,” Jefferts Schori said. “The Church of England is going to have far more, far better representation by women bishops very soon because they appoint their bishops.”</p>
<p>Installing provisional bishops would potentially blunt the clout of lay delegates who oppose women candidates. A diocesan standing committee can bypass the usual election and, in consultation with the presiding bishop, appoint a provisional bishop to serve a designated term anytime a vacancy arises. Though a provisional bishop would still need to be approved by a diocesan convention, a woman serving in the role would have an advantage over one running on a ballot against several men.</p>
<p>Other forum participants agreed with the panelists. “I have found in my own process that the laity, and in particular laywomen, seem to often favor the men,” said Suzanne Culhane, a student at Episcopal Divinity School and a candidate for ordination in the Diocese of New York. “That’s quite clear and obvious to me.”</p>
<p>“The presiding bishop addressed it when she said it’s the laypeople in the pews, and those who go to convention and vote, that tend to be older, much more traditional, and white,” said the Rev. Nancy Gossling, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was one of four nominees (all women) in the Diocese of Maryland’s recent election of a bishop suffragan. “Until the diversity in our congregations change, I don’t think the leadership is going to change.”</p>
<p><em>Image: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asperges a congregation during the Women’s Leadership Forum at Episcopal Divinity School. • <a href="http://www.kenkotch.com">Ken Kotch Photography</a> • <a href="http://www.kenkotch.com">www.kenkotch.com</a></em></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/provisional-bishops" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">provisional bishops</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:50:36 +0000Web Editor1688 at http://www.livingchurch.orgSynod: Women May Now Applyhttp://www.livingchurch.org/synod-women-may-now-apply
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Adapted from an Anglican Communion News Service <a href="http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2014/07/church-of-england-says-yes-to-women-bishops.aspx">report</a></p>
<p>Women may become bishops in the Church of England because of a historic vote by General Synod July 14.</p>
<p>Following a day of debate at the General Synod meeting in York on the issue of women in the episcopate, at least two thirds majority of each house — laity, clergy, and bishops — approved the measure:</p>
<table align="right" border="2" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" style="width:250px;"><tbody><tr><td>
<p><strong>Across the Communion</strong></p>
<p><strong>Provinces and extra-provincial dioceses in which women serve as bishops</strong> — Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia, Australia, Canada, Cuba (extra-provincial diocese), Southern Africa, Ireland, South India.</p>
<p><strong>Provinces that allow for women bishops but have not elected or appointed any</strong> — Bangladesh, Brazil, Central America, Japan, Mexico, North India, Philippines, Scotland, Sudan, Tanzania, Wales</p>
<p><strong>Provinces that do not consecrate women as bishops</strong> — Burundi, Central Africa, Congo, Hong Kong, Indian Ocean, Jerusalem and the Middle East, Kenya, Korea, Melanesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, South East Asia, Southern Cone, Uganda, West Indies, West Africa</p>
</td>
</tr></tbody></table><ul><li>Bishops: 37 in favor, 2 against, 1 abstention</li>
<li>Clergy: 162 in favor, 25 against, 4 abstentions</li>
<li>Laity: 152 in favor, 45 against, 5 abstentions</li>
</ul><p>The first woman bishop could be appointed by the end of the year. The Church of England joins 20 other provinces or extra-provincial dioceses that allow for women bishops.</p>
<p>Before the vote, the Most. Rev. John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, asked synod members to greet the result “with restraint and sensitivity,” but a flurry of cheers arose nonetheless.</p>
<p>The vote comes 18 months after the proposal was last voted upon in November 2012, when the proposal failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority in the House of Laity.</p>
<p>The Most Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, said:</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">Today is the completion of what was begun over 20 years with the ordination of women as priests. I am delighted with today’s result. Today marks the start of a great adventure of seeking mutual flourishing while still, in some cases, disagreeing.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">The challenge for us will be for the church to model good disagreement and to continue to demonstrate love for those who disagree on theological grounds. Very few institutions achieve this, but if we manage this we will be living our more fully the call of Jesus Christ to love one another. As delighted as I am for the outcome of this vote, I am also mindful of those within the Church for whom the result will be difficult and a cause of sorrow.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">My aim, and I believe the aim of the whole church, should be to be able to offer a place of welcome and growth for all. Today is a time of blessing and gift from God and thus of generosity. It is not winner take all, but in love a time for the family to move on together.</p>
<p>The legislation includes a House of Bishops declaration, underpinned by five guiding principles and a disputes resolution procedure. Following the vote on the measure that enables women to become bishops, the synod voted on enabling legislation (canon) and rescinded existing legislation (act of synod) as part of a package of measures being proposed.</p>
<p>The measure now moves to the Legislative Committee of General Synod and then to the Ecclesiastical Committee of the Houses of Parliament, in which the legislation will be considered. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the measure will return to the General Synod in November, when it will come into force after its promulgation (legal formal announcement).</p>
<p>The vote follows a process that began at the 2013 July Synod, which created a steering committee on women bishops, led by the Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff, with a mandate to draw up a package of new proposals. Bishop Langstaff opened the debate on behalf of the steering committee and urged synod members to vote for the proposals.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/news-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">news</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/consecration" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">consecration</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ordination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ordination</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Mon, 14 Jul 2014 17:05:46 +0000Web Editor1522 at http://www.livingchurch.orgPeace Breaks Out at Synodhttp://www.livingchurch.org/peace-breaks-out-synod
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>By Gavin Drake</p>
<p>Almost exactly one year to the day that the Church of England’s General Synod declined final approval for legislation that would have permitted women to be consecrated as bishops, the Synod voted by an overwhelming majority to give first consideration to new legislation.</p>
<p>The anger, bitterness, and recriminations that followed last year’s vote were absent in a debate that was marked instead by a willingness to understand the contrary position and a clear determination that the current draft legislation should be approved as soon as synodical processes will allow.</p>
<p>The previous attempt was dogged by arguments about the nature of the provision to be provided for those with theological objections to women bishops: Anglo-Catholics whose concerns centre largely over questions of sacramental assurance and conservative evangelicals whose primary concern is about headship.</p>
<p>The new proposed legislation is a package: the Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure simply provides that the C of E can legislate by canon to permit women to be bishops; the Draft Amending Canon Number 33 amends various existing canons to remove the prohibition on women being ordained as bishop and requires the House of Bishops to make regulations providing for a dispute resolution procedure if any party believes that the House of Bishops’ Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and Priests has been broken.</p>
<p>The bishops’ declaration hasn’t yet been made. A draft declaration prepared by the steering group that prepared the proposals is expected to be debated by the bishops at their meeting in December.</p>
<p>The proposals “look to the day when the Church of England as an ecclesial entity will have made a clear decision to open all orders of ministry to women and men without distinction, whereby all those so ordained are the true and lawful holders of the office which they occupy,” said the Rt. Rev. James Langstaff, Bishop of Rochester, as he moved the steering committee’s report. “But they also look to us being the kind of church within which, that clear decision having been made, those who out of theological conviction take a different view on that matter may continue to flourish, playing a full part within the life and structures of our church.”</p>
<p>He said that a vote for the motion before the Synod was “a vote for this process to continue in a way that is purposeful, considered, consultative, transparent, hopefully reasonably swift but not over-hasty, and prayerful.”</p>
<p>The package of proposals was welcomed by most of the campaigning groups, sometimes cautiously.</p>
<p>The proposals were “very significant improvements on the package that we had before us last year,” said Canon Simon Killwick, chairman of the Catholic Group on General Synod. “Clearly, a great deal of trust is still required on all sides. … And I do thank God that there is such a positive atmosphere of trust in the Synod today.”</p>
<p>“If anyone had told me that one year on from last November we would be where we are I would have said ‘that’s impossible,’ but by the grace of God it has been possible and here we are,” said Christina Rees, former chair of Women and the Church (WATCH).</p>
<p>“What we have in front of us works, and it works for all of us, no matter where we are coming from on this matter,” said Prebendary David Houlding, a prominent Anglo-Catholic member of the Synod. “Here we have a measure, plain and simple — a one-clause measure in effect — that will enable women to be consecrated without qualification or limited to be admitted to the office of bishop. This must be good news. But there is equally good news in the declaration that will accompany it from the House of Bishops, which provides an ecclesial life and sacramental assurance that we have been arguing for over these past years.”</p>
<p>He added: “We are all loyal Anglicans, and an honoured place is assured for all in these proposals. The battle, surely, is over. Let’s now get on with the mission.”</p>
<p>Others were more guarded. Susie Leafe, director of the conservative evangelical group Reform, said she could not say that “all was well” with the proposed measure and “cannot in good conscience” vote for the package of proposals.</p>
<p>“We claim that this package is designed to enable all to flourish, yet I and my church can only flourish once we have denied our theological convictions and accepted a woman as our chief pastor,” she said. “You may say that we are offered the opportunity to accept pastoral and sacramental ministry from another bishop, but responsibility for this lies in the hands of a woman.”</p>
<p>She said that the measure risked “alienating churches which are sending large numbers of men for ordination and whose churches are generally growing and whose congregations are generally youthful.”</p>
<p>At the conclusion of the debate, 378 members of the Synod voted in favour of the proposals. Just eight members voted against and there were 25 recorded abstentions. The Synod voted to send the measure for “revision in the whole Synod,” effectively removing the Revision Committee stage. It is expected to return to the Synod in February and could be sent to the dioceses for their approval then.</p>
<p>If a majority of dioceses give their approval to the measure, it could receive Final Approval as early as July. It would then need the consent of both Houses of Parliament before it can receive Royal Assent and become law.</p>
<p><strong>In Other Business</strong><br />The Synod endorsed a motion on “intentional evangelism,” from the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. John Sentamu. The motion supports the establishment of an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism, and asks every diocesan and deanery synod and Parochial Church Council to “spend the bulk of one meeting annually and some part of every meeting focusing on sharing experiences and initiatives for making new disciples.” It also urges “every local church in 2014 prayerfully to try at least one new way, appropriate to their local context, of seeking to make new disciples of Jesus Christ.”</p>
<p>Introducing the debate, Archbishop Sentamu said that evangelism was nearer his heart than any other theme. Not every Christian is an evangelist but “every Christian is a witness,” he said. “Witnesses are empowered by the Holy Spirit simply to share what they have experienced. … All people in Britain experience weather, and they talk about it readily, and repeatedly. If only disciples of Jesus Christ in England did the same about him — and he is infinitely greater than British weather.”</p>
<p>Archbishop Sentamu chose the theme of poverty for his presidential address. This is a significant political issue in Britain, with the opposition Labour party making capital out of what it calls the Cost of Living Crisis.</p>
<p>“Increasing poverty in a land of plenty” is a “blight” on Great Britain, Sentamu said. “We are a developed economy and a First World country, so how can it be that in this day and age we are seeing malnutrition, food poverty and energy poverty at such levels in our country?”</p>
<p>The archbishop quoted a recent regional newspaper report about a trebling of the number of people admitted to hospital in the northeastern city of Leeds to be treated for malnutrition: “How can it be that last year more than 27,000 people were diagnosed as suffering from malnutrition in Leeds — not Lesotho, not Liberia, not Lusaka, but Leeds?”</p>
<p>He called on churches to demonstrate “love in action” to tackle the problem, saying that the “real strength of the church” is “its extensive presence on the ground in areas of economic stress and strain as well as in more prosperous places.”</p>
<p>He added: “The Church can make an impact when its members, at every level, recognise that they have a responsibility to reflect the experience, the life, the troubles, the fears and the hopes of those among whom we serve; whether it is the individual local church volunteer helping their neighbour; the parish making representatives to the local council; groups of Christian business people challenging company ethics; bishops speaking to civic leaders in their dioceses; or the Lords Spiritual raising the debate in the House of Lords.”</p>
<p>The Most Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave a presentation to the Synod outlining his activities since the Synod last met in July and spoke of the “terrible atrocities” that had taken place in Peshawar and Nairobi.</p>
<p>He had been able “to get, fleetingly, to Nairobi for a condolence visit” and received “an emotional and warm welcome from Archbishop [Eliud] Wabukala.” He offered to make a visit to Peshawar, but the Archbishop of Pakistan “felt it would not be helpful” because of the security situation in the region.</p>
<p>Archbishop Welby asked the Synod to send “a further message of support to our suffering sisters and brothers in Pakistan,” adding that the attacks “are amongst many which have been afflicting Christians around the world.”</p>
<p>“Many parts of the Anglican Communion suffer greatly and the Synod will acknowledge both the suffering and courage of churches in places like Nigeria. The issue of how we support each other and how we understand and confront violent attacks in the light and grace of Christ is one of the greatest of our age.”</p>
<p>The archbishop said he had made ten “personal and private” visits to other primates of the Anglican Communion and hoped to visit the other 27 within the next 12 months.</p>
<p>While in Nairobi he met primates who had arrived for the Gafcon conference. “There were naturally rather different views expressed, including about me, not invariably warm, but I was most glad to have had the opportunity to meet, and the general response was very kind.”</p>
<p>The C of E is awaiting a report from a commission appointed to “advise the House of Bishops on the Church of England’s approach to human sexuality.” Archbishop Welby told the Synod that the group, chaired by retired Civil Servant Sir Joseph Pilling, had completed its work and said that the report would be published “soon.” Asked to clarify, he said that “soon means not very long, fairly imminently, but not very soon.”</p>
<p>Further discussion of the Pilling report is expected in December by the House of Bishops, which will decide when and how it should be published and whether any change in policy or doctrine should be proposed.</p>
<p>Archbishop Welby stressed that the report “will be a document which will offer findings and recommendations from the members of the group for the Church of England to consider. It will not be a new policy statement from the Church of England. That will be made quite clear when the report is published.”</p>
<p>The other major item of business was a debate supporting the C of E’s work with schools. The history of education in England means that many schools have a church foundation.</p>
<p>The Synod endorsed an amendment to a motion from the Rt. Rev. Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, calling on parishes to “identify and implement good practice to strengthen links between Church schools and parishes.”</p>
<p>Smith said the original motion “calls upon dioceses to do things; it calls upon the ministry council to do things; it invites the Archbishops’ Council to do things; but it omits parishes from doing anything and it seems to me that this is the key place that difference is likely to be made.”</p>
<p><em>Gavin Drake is a freelance writer and broadcaster based in the English West Midlands.</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/church-england" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Church of England</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/general-synod" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">General Synod</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Mon, 25 Nov 2013 23:34:39 +0000Web Editor1184 at http://www.livingchurch.orgHow Did We Get Here?http://www.livingchurch.org/how-did-we-get-here
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Catholic Voices</span></p>
<p>By Prudence Dailey</p>
<p>The compact geography of England means that our General Synod is able to meet much more frequently — twice or occasionally three times a year — than on the other side of the Atlantic. The advantages of this arrangement include the opportunity to work towards important decisions through several stages of deliberation, and the opportunity for members, who are elected for five-year terms, actually to get to know each other personally, and to establish relationships across diverse backgrounds and positions. This, in turn, ought to lead — at least in theory — to greater mutual respect. It should also be noted that, for certain types of business, a two-thirds majority in all three Houses (bishops, clergy, and laity) is required for the legislation to pass at the final stage, although only simple majorities are required up to that point.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, when the Church of England’s General Synod approved a measure to ordain women as priests, assurances were given to those who in conscience could not accept this development that they would continue to have an “honoured place” within the church, and that their “integrity” would be respected. An Act of Synod was passed to make arrangements for them, including the provision of Provincial Episcopal Visitors (“flying bishops”). Indeed, it is widely accepted that this measure could not have achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in all three Houses without such provisions.</p>
<p>In the initial stages of the discussion, once the General Synod had approved in principle that women should be bishops, many who opposed this decision recognized that the consecration of women to the episcopate was inevitable, and those backing the change said that it should be brought about in a way which enabled everyone to remain in the Church of England in good conscience. There was much talk of “squaring the circle,” and a number of contributors spoke of their desire to avoid becoming like the Episcopal Church, with deep divisions and warring factions, and attempts to subdue a minority through the raw exercise of power. The general mood was one of optimism: those who could not accept women as bishops believed that there was a genuine desire to accommodate them, and that a way would be found (just as it had been in 1992) for those with divergent convictions on the matter to live together in relative harmony.</p>
<p>In 2006, the Synod voted overwhelmingly to “take note” of a report which included proposals for Transferred Episcopal Authority. But at the following House of Bishops meeting, “senior women” made representations that they would not be prepared to be bishops under such arrangements, so they were dropped. Various alternative proposals for accommodation were put forward by traditional Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals, still confident at that stage that something suitable would emerge.</p>
<p>During an emotional debate in July 2008, however, every one of those proposals was in turn rejected by the Synod in favour of a simple Code of Practice, as supporters of women bishops expressed fears that the proposals for greater accommodation, enshrined in legislation, would result in women becoming “second-class” bishops, and assured the Synod that legislative provision should not be required if only we would all “trust the bishops.”</p>
<p>The Rt. Rev. Stephen Venner, then Bishop of Dover, a supporter of women as bishops, and generally regarded as a liberal, was in tears as he said that</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">for the first time in my life I feel ashamed. We have talked for hours about wanting to give an honourable place to those who disagree; we have been given opportunities for both views to flourish; we have turned down almost every realistic opportunity for the views of those who are opposed to flourish; ... and we still talk the talk of being inclusive and generous.</p>
<p>Both archbishops were clearly dismayed; at the end of the debate, the Archbishop of Canterbury abstained on the motion to proceed to the next stage.</p>
<p>In July 2010, the archbishops attempted to salvage the situation by bringing forward an amendment to introduce “coordinate jurisdiction.” Whilst an overall majority of Synod members supported the amendment, it fell in the House of Clergy by just five votes.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that at no stage of the proceedings has there been a two-thirds majority in the House of Laity in favour of the proposals. After traditionalists repeatedly told the Synod that the proposed Code of Practice simply was not an adequate response to the substance of their theological objections to women bishops, it should have come as no surprise that the legislation was defeated. Advocates of women bishops should have realised that, much as they might have wished it otherwise, the Synodical process did what it was designed to do: ensure that major changes cannot be made without consensus, and that the majority cannot exercise tyranny over a substantial minority.</p>
<p>Instead, those of us who in good conscience voted against the measure have been collectively subjected to an outpouring of vitriol, bile, misrepresentation, and contempt, including (I am sorry to say) in some cases from other members of General Synod, through the media and social networks. Suddenly, there are cries that the House of Laity is unrepresentative of the laity at large, that the system is “broken,” and even that Parliament should intervene to impose women bishops on the church. Opponents of the measure are told that we have damaged the Church of England; we are caricatured as “extremists” and worse. We are threatened with a “single-clause measure” next time around, without even a Code of Practice to provide for those who cannot accept women as bishops. If ever there was a question whether legislative provision was really necessary — whether what was required was, after all, just more generous mutual trust — such an aspiration seems hopelessly naïve now.</p>
<p><em>Prudence Dailey is, since 2000, a member of the General Synod of the Church of England.</em></p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><strong>Update from the Feb. 3 edition of The Living Church</strong><br />In “How Did We Get Here from There?” [TLC, Dec. 23] Prudence Dailey asserts that the 1992 General Synod legislation enabling women to become priests would not have achieved the required two-thirds majorities in all three houses without the additional provisions for “flying bishops” contained in the Act of Synod.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">This is incorrect. The measure was passed in November 1992 with majorities of 75 percent (bishops), 70.4 percent (clergy), and 67.3 percent (laity), whereas the Act of Synod was first mentioned as a possibility only in April 1993, during the interrogation of church officials by the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament. In June the House of Bishops considered a draft text; in July this was published in a House of Bishops statement, and it was not until November 1993, a full year later, that it was approved by the whole Synod.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">Indeed the act was necessary, but it was to obtain the approval of Parliament to the measure, not to pass it in the first place.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">Simon Sarmiento<br />St Albans, England</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><em>Prudence Dailey replies:</em><br />Simon Sarmiento is, of course, quite right that in my article I inadvertently conflated two separate sets of events, and I am grateful to him for pointing out the error.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;">The legislation approved by General Synod in 1992 did contain clear, legally enforceable safeguards for opponents (Resolutions A and B), without which it would not have passed. The Act of Synod followed a year later, as Mr. Sarmiento says, in order to satisfy the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/118823195/Catholic-Voices-Women-in-the-Episcopate" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Catholic Voices: Women in the Episcopate on Scribd">Catholic Voices: Women in the Episcopate</a></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/general-synod" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">General Synod</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women-bishops" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">women as bishops</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopate" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">episcopate</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/essays-reviews" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Essays &amp; Reviews</a></div></div></div>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:43:33 +0000Douglas LeBlanc556 at http://www.livingchurch.org